1. Course Description

This course aims to provide a broad background to the current discussions and debates in philosophy of science. Since many of the current debates are shaped by the dominate traditions in philosophy of science in the 20th century, such as logical positivism and the historicist movement stemming from Kuhn, we will spend some time on both of these. However, so as to students to appreciate and understand contemporary discussions, the time spent on the traditional material will necessarily be abbreviated. The course will not focus on any given science, but will strive to be inclusive. Students are strongly encouraged to bring to the discussion material from sciences in which they have background.

2. Course Requirements

Students are expected to do the assigned reading and to attend all the class sessions. By 11 am prior to each class session each student should submit a one-paragraph comment or question to the course email list. These may either seek clarification about or raise objections to major points in the reading. The contributions should reflect an effort to understand the assigned material and should provide the context for the issue raised. There are also be three papers assigned during the quarter (due dates are October 22, November 12, and December 7--these dates do not correspond to class days). These papers should be in the range of 1,200 to 1,500 words. Suggested topics for the papers will be provided nd will be based largely on the material we are covering in class (i.e., they are not research papers). They should be submitted electronically in Word to papers@mechanism.ucsd.edu.

3. Texts

The reading assignments can be found on the web. See the schedule of classes and readings below.

4. Email List

There is an email list for this seminar: philsci@mechanism.ucsd.edu. It is required that you subscribe to this list. Do it IMMEDIATELY. You can always unsubscribe later if you drop the course. The purpose of the list is twofold--to enable me to communicate information about upcoming seminar sessions and to allow members of the seminar to raise questions or engage in discussion outside of the seminar. Initially the list will be unmoderated, which will enable all (but only) subscribers to send email to the list. (You will need to send email from the address you use to register for the list.) If this is abused, we will need to move to a moderated list.

5. Schedule of Classes and Readings

Note: many of the links will only work when within the UCSD domain (or when using a VPN connection through UCSD) or within the domain of an institution that has a subscription to the relevant provider. If you are affiliated with UCSD you are entitled to a VPN connection. Click here to find out more about setting up VPN at UCSD.